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Saki Miyanaga
Saki Miyanaga is a first-year student at Kiyosumi High School and is the title character of the story. She is notorious for her ability to break even in every match, as she didn't want to win against her family. However, after joining the mahjong club, she uses her skill for the sake of winning and hopes to progress to the nationals to reunite with her older sister, Teru Miyanaga. At first she is distant towards Nodoka Haramura but over time becomes extremely close to her (to the point where they frequently hold hands and draw strength from each other). She gets easily distracted and has a poor sense of direction, which causes her to get lost during excursions, particularly in tournaments. After her performance in Nagano prefectural and the eventual defeat of Amae Koromo, people begin considering her as one of the feared national-class monsters. Appearance Saki has short brown hair, often with one tuft sticking out from the side of her head, and red eyes. She has a petite body and is most commonly seen in the Kiyosumi High School uniform. Personality Saki is a shy, bookish girl with a poor sense of direction. At first, despite her skills, she doesn't like winning or mahjong in particular because of her family. She is very caring about her friends' feelings as seen when she loses on purpose to Yuuki Kataoka to make her feel better and stops doing so because Nodoka wants to have fun. Saki gets very excited when thinking about playing against strong competition. Saki is a poor swimmer and she doesn't use electronics, only getting a cell-phone right before the team semi-finals in nationals. Playing Style / Abilities Saki's skills primarily come from her ability to sense her opponents (even from several city blocks away) and along with their tiles present on the table, she can read the flow of the game. However, she has a hard time reading the table itself and thus initially plays online mahjong very poorly but later improve thanks to Hisa training. The mahjong move she favors most is ''rinshan kaihou'' or "tsumo after a kan". Rinshan kaihou literally means "a flower blooms on a ridge". With it, she is able to win hands when she isn't in tenpai at the start of her turn.The furthest away Saki can be from winning a hand and still win in her next turn is four tiles (three shanten). With three isolated hidden quads and an isolated tile (that has neighborly tiles in the dead-wall), she'll be three away from winning once she draws a tile. Then, with three kan''s, she can get the three tiles she needs to win. Aiding her ''rinshan kaihou ability is her enhanced ability to get kan''s. Saki also has an enhanced ability to make last hand comebacks. Saki also has a plus/minus 0 ability. Initially she is seen scoring successive scores of +/- 0 when she plays against Nodoka, Yuuki, and Kyoutaro. In the prefectural tournament she also goes on a streak of +/- 0 until Nodoka confronts her about not trying her best. In the nationals, this ability seems to also affect the scores of others; whereby she is able to control scores of her opponents to aid in ensuring her win. Finally, she is noted to have very good luck both in her initial hands and draws. For example, when Hisa tests her ability to win in episode 2, Saki is able to get a ''double-richii & ippatsu-tsumo ''in the East game - 1st hand. Also, she got a kokushi musou in less than 3 turns in episode 3. Plot Introduction Arc The story starts off with Saki sitting near a river reading a book when she notices a girl walking nearby. As she thinks to herself about the pretty and busty girl walking past her, Kyoutarou (Saki's middle school friend) invites her to lunch so he can try the ladies' lunch. While reading, she notices Kyou playing something which turns out to be mahjong. She states she knows how to play it and hates it, however, since she knows how to play Kyoutarou drags her to the mahjong club. There she meets the girl from before, Nodoka Haramura, and Yuuki Kataoka. The four begin to play and Saki gets a score of +/- 0 in each of the two games. When a storm begins she is startled by someone's yelling and is introduced to the president of the mahjong club, Hisa Takei. After the next game ends again with Saki breaking even, she leaves saying that she has to return the book to the library. We next see Saki after Nodoka chases her down and we learn that Saki plays the way she does because of her family. She then declines Nodoka's request for another game and states that she dislikes mahjong. The next day we see her in the library looking for a book, but it was already checked out. Hisa suddenly greets her, then snoops for the title of the book and says that in exchange for two matches she can borrow the entire set from the mahjong club. When Saki enters the club see plays against Yuuki, Mako Someya, and Nodoka with a special rule set (East Wind game with 4 red tiles). Throughout the first match, Hisa confirms that she doesn't care about winning at all and only thinks about breaking even, and after some complications, she does. Then Hisa tries to convince her that she should try and win but to no avail, so Hisa tells her that she should imagine herself with 1,000 points to everyone's 33,000 points. She agrees, saying that breaking even like that would be considered a victory. In the later parts of the game, Saki wins with a ''yakuman for the first time and thinks she broke even again. However, Hisa explains that she started with the same amount of points as the rest and it's her victory, which makes her extremely happy. But Nodoka becomes upset and runs away. Hisa tells Saki to go after her saying that books won't run away crying. When she catches up with her, she tells Nodoka that she had fun playing with her but Nodoka is still angry because of what Saki said previously. Later at home, she brings out her old mahjong table much to the surprise of her dad. After a talk between the two, her father hands her a magazine with her sister in it. The next day she joins the mahjong club. We then see Saki before school asleep by a tree. She dreams of her sister and we find out why she likes rinshan kaihou before she awakes. Kyou meets up with her and they have a chat about mahjong and Nodoka, and then Yuuki joins them to go to the club. They get there only to find Nodoka trying to break even by playing all the hands herself with all of the tiles revealed, but she had been unsuccessful. When they start playing, Saki wins and Yuuki whines about not winning. In the next match, Yuuki wins with Saki's help and Saki breaks even once again, which causes Nodoka to pout and leave the room again. She chases after her again and tries to talk to her but Nodoka angrily asks Saki to quit the club. After hearing her reasons, she promises not to go easy any more and tells Nodoka of her family troubles. Afterwards, both promise to each other to go to the nationals together. Training Camp Arc Saki and Nodoka walk to school together and later having lunch with Yuuki and Kyou. Later, Hisa is seen preparing their club for the upcoming prefectural tournament and explaining Ryuumonbuchi's strength. She then asks Nodoka and Saki to help Mako out by filling in for the part-timers who called in sick at the mahjong parlor, stating that she's too busy and it will be a great experience for them. When they arrive, they are greeted by Mako and are put into embarrassing maid costumes. They join a table to play and after winning a few games, a strange women enters the parlor. She notices her presence and when she joins them at the table, Saki begins trembling saying that it feels like when she used to play with her sister. The stranger starts slow but quickly decimates her opponents. It is then revealed that she is a pro mahjong player, Yasuko Fujita. When she feels relieved and says that no high schooler could beat a pro, Fujita tells them that she was beaten by Koromo Amae from Ryuumonbuchi and that they have no chance against her. Afterwards, she feels down and gets cheered up by Nodoka. They decide that they want a training camp to get better. Expecting this, Hisa stayed late at the club room and when Saki and Nodoka burst in revealing their intentions, Hisa smiles. She then walks over to the eraseboard and flips it to show the already planned training program. At the camp Hisa explains that Saki can see subtle cues that others can't, but playing mahjong while only seeing tiles would be interesting, so she makes her play online mahjong and she does horribly. We are then shown flashes of the training camp up until the day of the preliminaries. In the anime, Saki, Nodoka, and Yuuki travel to a nearby waterfall and discuss how they wish to continue being together. They also bathe together in a hot spring and Saki sees a shooting star. Prefectural Tournament Arc Before the start of the tournament, we see her separated from the group and wandering the halls in search of everyone. While she passes by Ryuumonbuchi, most of them feel her aura. When she catches up with the rest, she tells them how much she is excited to play against the strong people and then the group heads out to the viewing area. It is there that Hisa reveals that Saki will be the captain in the line-up much, which shocks her. When one of their first round opponents walks by and mocks them, including Nodoka, she worries for her. She is then seen watching Yuuki and Mako's battles before leaving with Nodoka to get something to eat as advised by Hisa. On the way to the cafeteria, presumably after having stopped along the way, they pass by a couple of Ryuumonbuchi girls and are questioned a bit, but they head back due to an announcement that Hisa's battle had ended. She is then seen watching Nodoka's battle and afterwards, it's implied that she humilated one of her opponents during her own battle. As Saki is shown at lunch talking about their victory and wishing to play stronger competition, Fujita-pro arrives to compliment them. After a brief conversation, they head out for the next round. Kiyosumi is then seen winning and advancing to the finals. Later that night, Hisa treats all of her underclassmen to dinner at a ramen stand. When the finals begin the next day, Saki watches and briefly comments on Yuuki's match. When Yuuki returns feeling dejected, she leaves with Nodoka to the nap room so Yuuki can be comforted by her upperclassmen. Before sleeping, the two briefly reminisce about their troubles before promising once again to win and go to the nationals. She awakens just before Nodoka's battle begins and rushes to the competition room to wish her good luck. We next see her after Nodoka's battle all excited for her own turn and she heads out early. On the way to the playing area, she exchanges a high five with Nodoka but soon senses Koromo's powerful aura. At the start of her match, things go well with Saki winning the first two hands with rinshan kaiho''s. However, after Tsuruga's Yumi Kajiki wins off of her, Koromo starts to take over the game. After noticing some resistance from the others, Koromo steps up her game again and crushes the rest heading into the intermission. She notes that she feels even worse than she did when playing her sister when younger. During the intermission, Saki races towards the bathroom but once again gets lost until Nodoka finds her. After a quick pep talk, she leads Saki back to the playing room without her going to the bathroom. At the start of the second ''hanchan game, Koromo Amae once again controls the action, winning consecutively and dropping Kazekoshi's Kana Ikeda to zero points. Saki, however, was beginning to warm up and let Kana win off of her. After remembering how she played in the training camp, she takes off her shoes and socks to feel more comfortable. She then starts winning with cheap hands before topping if off with a dealer's baiman, worth 24,000 points. Koromo then asks Saki if she thinks she will win, and she replies yes and states her desire to reunite with her family. Koromo is then reminded of her own tragic past and thinks that she is alone. Angered by this, the girl unleashes her powers and it is so great that the electronics in the arena go out and restart later thanks to her. Koromo then hits another big haitei raoyue, ending Saki's dealership moving the match to the final rotation. It is then that Saki teaches Koromo that playing mahjong is fun, before defeating her on the last hand with a direct hit yakuman. With the win, Saki's teammates come to celebrate their advancement to the nationals, but she runs out heading towards the bathroom. Individual Tournament *Anime Only Arc* We see Saki dreaming of her sister before waking up and heading to school. After school, she finds Nodoka heading toward the club room and they both reaffirm their desire to win at the nationals and are curious as to why the president wanted them to bring swimsuits. At the club they find out they're heading to Sports Land for "special training at the pool". Saki is doubtful until Hisa says it's a reward. When Kiyosumi gets to the pool, it is revealed that Saki cannot swim. Nodoka then suggests that she go into the shallow end and also use the inflatable Etopen. When she gets into the pool she is so excited that she hugs Nodoka causing her a bit of embarrassment. Later, minus the upperclassmen, Kiyosumi wonders a hall looking for the VIP room and they run into the Ryuumonbuchi team. After Nodoka and Koromo agree to be friends and Saki agrees to play Koromo again, they go back to the pool. When the tournament kicks off, Kiyosumi dominate the competition on the first day and Saki is revealed to have made it into the top 20 and advances to the next day. However, on the next day she realizes that this is the president's only shot to get to the nationals, so she decides to remove herself from the running by scoring +/- 0 for the next few rounds. At lunch time, Nodoka notices this and scolds her for not playing seriously and talks her into trying her best. As fate would have it, Saki and Hisa play each other in their nineth match of the day. Through most of the match, she is contained thanks to a strategy started by Hisa that was working well until Tsuruga's Momoko Touyoko broke from the plan, allowing her to emerge the winner. Saki thanks Hisa for her previous advice that allowed Saki to glimpse through Momoko's stealth. In the last matches of the day, we see Saki contending for a spot in the nationals against Kazekoshi's Miharu Yoshitome, Kazue Nanpo, and Tsuruga's Satomi Kanbara. Throughout the match she is held in check by her peers until finally edging out a another comeback victory with a tsumo after a kan. She barely earned the final spot in the nationals over Hisa. A bit after the tournament, she is seen waiting for Nodoka to finish an interview and is approached by Kyou about going to the summer festival. As Kyou convinces her to wear her yukata (so that he can see Nodoka in a yukata), Yuuki interrupts them to brag about her yukata undergarments and tells them about the second training camp. In the club room, we then learn that Yuuki has failed her math test and Saki and Nodoka agree to help her study for the make-ups. After they learn they are banned from the club room, they try various different study places but get nowhere. They decide to head to the public library and due to a thunderstorm, they become soaked on the way. While drying out, Saki explains that she sometimes feels when it rains that the room she's in is a little ship floating in the ocean. Yuuki interrupts and they go back to studying. She is then shown with everyone, except for Hisa, waiting for Yuuki to finish her test. When she does, they all head to the festival. While there, Nodoka trips and Saki catches her, they share a moment, then get back up holding hands and join the rest to watch the fireworks. Combined Training Camp Arc We first see her at the start of the camp with Nodoka and Koromo getting ready to play together. The following day during the matches, Saki, Koromo, and Yasuko Fujita wait for another opponent to join them when Touka Ryuumonbuchi asks to join them. She then takes the final spot at the table and thrashes them. Afterwards, in Kiyosumi's room, Saki gets excited by the prospect of playing similarly strong players at the nationals. Then Maho Yumeno and Hiroko Murohashi arrive and Hisa proposes a match between the two and Nodoka and Saki. During the game, Maho copies Saki's rinshan kaiho to Saki's amazement but afteward does nothing much. After the match we see her sulking and Hisa says to herself that she had been carefee since the prefecturals and that she need her to brace herself for the nationals. However if she faced a strong opponent, she would just get excited so she used Maho to scare her by threatening her territory. National Tournament Arc In August Kiyosumi arrives at their hotel in Tokyo for the nationals and during their free time the first year girls decided to take a bath and are greeted by Kazekoshi's Kana Ikeda. After hearing her explain why she's there Touka and Koromo appear as well and hug Saki. The day of the tournament draw we see a sleepy Saki put on Mako Someya's skirt. When Nodoka asks is it okay not to visit her sister, Saki says that its okay because they probably wouldn't talk much and that until she gets to the finals she will crush everyone. Later she manages to get lost in the arena. Back at the hotel Saki tries to give the skirt back but instead flashes everyone by accident. On the day of the first round she and the rest of Kiyosumi are greeted by their rivals from the prefecturals and Saki is present to view the video sent to the president from fans back home. On their next free day we see everyone watching matches in their room, except Saki who decided to go out and read a book. Throughout the first two matches of the second round we see her cheer on her teammates. When its time for Hisa's match, Saki noted that she seemed a bit off. Later in the match she was happy that the president was back to her old self and is scolded by Nodoka because of her different views on it. After Hisa's match she says that she isn't coming back and wishes Nodoka luck before she leaves. She is seen conversing with Hisa and Yuuki before leaving for her match. When the match begins, Saki remains quiet until the fourth round of the east when she hits her signature rishan kaihou. ''The game goes back and fourth for a while until Kyouko Suehara continues to play into Toyone Anetai's pursuit riichi's and the game goes into intermission. After the break, Toyone keeps winning until Kasumi Iwato uses her offensive abilities to gain the upper hand. She then notices that Kasumi feels like a different person than before. Before long she calls a ''kan then a riichi to lure in Toyone, then calls another kan ''to bypass Kasumi's ability, and finally ''tsumo's for a win. She then goes on a win streak and releases a demonic aura around her. When Kyouko wins the second to last hand, Saki wins on a ''tsumo ''on the last hand and gives Kiyosumi first place in the match and the win. She thanks everyone for the game then leaves. When she returns to the waiting room she is greeted by her team. She then says that she did an interview and got lost afterward. Saki then asks Nodoka to give her autograph to Toyone. Hisa tells her that it was quite a way she won her match and gives her a wet towel. She then apologizes to Hisa about the way she played and says that if she faces the Himematsu girl again, she might not win. Hisa then tells her that she didn't even take off her socks and that she can still improve. Final Eight Arc She is first seen as Nodoka tries to awaken her in the morning but was unable. When Nodoka and Yuuki get permission to go to the playing hall, she awakes and they take her with them. On their way there, Saki remembers that Teru is in the building and thinks back to the disaster that separated them. She then stops dead in her tracks and tells the others to go on and she will catch up later. Later she is shown reading a book until Nodoka calls to invite her to lunch. However not wanting to possibly meet her sister, refused and said she'll go back to the hotel. Back in the hotel she showers, eats, and then takes a nap. Here she dreams of a time when she was little and listening to her friend speak of her dreams. Saki is then awoken by Koromo and Hajime Kunihiro who want to play. She then tells them that Nodoka is at the playing hall, she wonders how she is doing. Before the start of the semi-finals Kiyosumi gathers and heads to the tournament hall. In the waiting room, Saki and the rest of Kiyosumi send off Yuuki. She is later seen watching Yuuki's match. Saki Achiga Hen episode of side A Saki first appears as she walks past Achiga Girls School before the bracket drawings with a rather determined expression. When she does this, Harue Akado and Kuro Matsumi could feel her presence (causing both to freeze and shiver slightly) and Shizuno then understood she was the one who defeated Koromo. Later in the anime she appears sitting in front of the laundry machines thinking. She is then interrupted by Kyoutarou Suga, asking if she wants to go visit sites. After a brief conversation, she says to herself that's not what she came to Tokyo to do. In the anime, she and the other first years end up going to the playing arena on their day off. However Saki doesn't go in because her sister is playing. After a while she wonders if the match is over yet. Saki is back at the hotel asleep. She is then awoken by Koromo and Hajime who wants to play. When she them that Nodoka is at the playing hall watching her old friends, they reveal that they know them. Koromo then tells Saki that Achiga might be trouble but she says she's happy to play someone strong. While watching the captains match, Saki asks Koromo if Shizuno was the person she was talking about. Koromo says yes and then explains that Shizuno managed to stop her haitei raoyue two out of the five times she tried it. She is then shown listening to Koromo about how Shizuno discovered her ability. When she sees this ability in action she notes how hers, Koromo's, and sometimes her sister's ability comes from the deep mountain. She is later seen with the rest of Kiyosumi before the start of their semi-finals match. Trivia * When Saki gets +/-0, also known as breaking even, it has often been ambiguously stated that she gets zero points. In the individuals games/matches, each player has to pay an ante at the end of the game of 5000 points, that goes to the game winner. When Saki breaks even, it means that she had netted around 5000 points during the game in order to break even at the end of the game. * In the anime, Saki sees Fujita-pro on the cover of the Weekly Mahjong Today news magazine that has an article on Teru. A week or so later, she senses Fujita-pro as she enters the cafe, but Saki totally doesn't know who she is. References Category:Kiyosumi High School Category:Characters Category:Supernatural powers Category:Demons